Outside the Magnet Box: Chris Chen's Dessert Truck

by Priyanka Gokhale

After graduating from the Blair Magnet, Chris Chen '02 entered
Columbia University with a plan to major in Electrical Engineering and go to
law school.Six years later, after earning a B.S. in
Operations Research and an M.B.A. from Columbia Business School, Chen found himself in an unlikely position at the helm of the Dessert Truck – New York City's premiere stop for gourmet
dessert on the street.

Chen's unusual path through the business world began in the
Magnet program, where he learned to think critically and reason through any
creative pursuits."You're able to
look at a situation and analyze it top to bottom and look at all the options
and risks," he says.

Chen credits Blair for the great teachers, particularly mentioning Mr. Bunday and Ms. Dyas."Specifically, Mr. Bunday is my buddy," he says."I didn’t come from Takoma [Park Middle
School] and I just kind of felt like I was behind and he kind of helped me get
caught up with everyone." He also credited Ms. Dvorsky's Discrete Mathematics class for helping him switch majors easily while at Columbia. After taking introductory Electrical
Engineering classes and deciding that the major was not for him, Chen switched
to Operations Research.He says the
major focused on "looking at optimization and stochastic modeling of
systems," and his Discrete Math experience gave him some crucial basic knowledge."I had some background so I kind of
understood what it was," Chen says.

It wasn't until Business school, though, that Chen was able
to apply his skills to the real world.One of two students accepted to Columbia
Business School fresh out of undergrad, Chen had business on the brain.His roommate at the time was Jerome Chang, a family friend
and a pastry chef at Le Cirque in New York City, and the two would often think
about food ideas and businesses to start.The idea came arbitrarily: "Wouldn’t it be great if there was a
truck that sold gourmet desserts?" he says, recalling the initial thought
process.

Chen recalls that it was a "huge risk" at the time, but they went for it – they got the funding, licenses, and
specially-outfitted truck (complete with a high-tech kitchen inside) – all while Chen was in his first year of business school.In October 2007, the truck rolled out onto
the streets of New York City with gourmet desserts.Within one month, their confections were in the New York Times.

Chang did the cooking, but Chen put his analytical skills to work running the business and operations. He soon found that the job entailed much more than just
number crunching."You pretty much
have to be able to do anything, ranging from the finances, accounting, and
operations to taking out the trash," he says. "If the truck broke
down you would have to fix the truck." Without a budget for marketing, Chen and Chang relied
heavily on word-of-mouth and Facebook.Despite the lack of formal advertising though, the business thrived: 300-400 customers were visiting each night.

Chen's most memorable moment with the Dessert Truck was their "Throwdown with Bobby Flay" on the Food Network.The show's premise is just that: a popular
food place is tricked into thinking that they're going to be on another show
when Bobby Flay shows up and challenges the chefs to a cook-off.

The pair was told that they were going to be on a show called "Food Roadies."Suspecting
something was up, Chen posted on Facebook that Flay was probably coming to
challenge the Dessert Truck.And sure
enough, Flay showed up, claiming that he had seen their Facebook page (though
Chen suspects that he was coming all along).The Dessert Truck defeated Flay, and its fame and fanbase continued to grow.

Ultimately, last December, Chen and his partner decided to
split ways."I thought we were at a
point at the company where we needed to head in one direction or another,"
Chen says.Chang did not share his vision, so Chen sold his stake to his partner and traded his truck keys for a job on Wall Street.

Today, Chen works in a "Strategy and Consulting
group" at American Express.With each job comes new lessons, and Chen is getting an
insider's look at international business and the management practices in
large companies. "At this job I am now I'm working with international partners.I travel out of the country and see how they
do business there," he says."At every job I think there's something you can learn."

Still, Chen credits the Dessert Truck for an
invaluable experience in the business world."I worked at a variety of places ranging from sales and trading to
management consulting and definitely running my own company was the most
difficult job I've ever had," he says."[It was] the one where I learned the most and grew the most." His advice to others is to go for it:"I definitely think if
you have thought through [your idea] and you think it’s a great idea you should
definitely do it."

Priyanka
Gokhale '08 is looking for Magnet students who have taken the program's
independent-thinking spirit and applied it in unique and interesting
ways. From day one in Research and Experimentation, we're thrust into
new situations and asked to think outside the box - and if you think
you know of alumni that embody this spirit, please e-mail news@mbhsmagnet.org or make a suggestion online.